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Recipe: roasted carrot soup

This past week was a really good one for me. Jeremy was out of town for the last half, so I plowed through heaps of work in addition to spending quality time with Kaweah. Warmer than normal weather meant Kaweah could sprawl out for countless hours on the deck (something she loves to do) without freezing or overheating. I packed my schedule to free up more leisure time when Jeremy came home.

kaweah soaks up all of the morning sun

and she periodically got up to sniff the latest news

i was quite excited to get new trail runners in the mail

And then late Wednesday night I got a message from a friend, asking if I was free to meet up for a last minute lunch or coffee the next day. Absolutely. I moved everything around in my schedule and drove into Boulder because you see, this was my best friend from high school who lives on the East Coast. We’ve known each other since fourth grade. We hadn’t seen one another in over 20 years.

meet clark

I waited outside The Kitchen, sending an email to a client when I heard a familiar voice call out, “Yuie!” The best people in my life give the best hugs and Clark is definitely one of them. It’s been a long time, I thought. All of the events since we last saw one another hit me in a wave and I blinked back the tears. It’s often said that good friends can pick up from wherever they left off and we immediately began sharing our lives, talking about our families, discussing happiness, life choices, aging dogs. The natural back and forth of conversation, so relaxed yet enthusiastic, made me realize just how close we were and still are. Two hours is such a short window of time to catch up on 20+ years, but it left both of us with the promise to get our families together and smiles that would last the rest of the day.

a great sunset to close out the weekend

That visit put my mood in the stratosphere. Good relationships are important for feeding your soul just like a good soup feeds your body (and your soul). I have fallen madly in love with this roasted carrot soup – so much so that I’ve made it three times in the last week. When Jeremy landed in Denver he texted me about dinner plans. Should we meet in Boulder at a restaurant or eat at home? I was already making the soup. After an entire day of travel, I figured he might enjoy relaxing at home with a nice meal, a glass of good wine, and perhaps unwinding in front of a movie.

so simple: celery, onion, carrots, olive oil, chicken broth, butter, salt, white pepper, ginger

dice the carrots

toss with olive oil

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Recipe: chanterelle mushroom hand pies

Autumn is the fleetingest of fleeting seasons in the mountains, or so it seems. Sunday felt like real winter as we hiked snowy trails, falling snowflakes caught up in our hair and settling on our hats, gloves, and the tops of our packs. Our last trail run left my calves sore from all the slipping and sliding on ice. Not quite enough snow to ski, but enough to warrant wearing traction devices for running. Shoulder season puts me in a mindset for winter. I can’t wait!

high winds sculpt beautiful clouds

snowy stream crossings

Cold is relative. Two months ago, 40°F felt chilly to me. Now, it feels warm as we enjoy temperatures dipping below freezing. I know in a few months, 40°F will be a veritable heat wave. Jeremy is a little more sensitive to the cold than I am. It’s probably because I have plenty of personal warmth (read: body fat) and he doesn’t. His hands and feet are always cold. He turns on his seat heater in both cars starting in September all the way through June. I saw a box of hand warmers for sale at Costco last week – 40 pair for something like $15. Then I had a mental image of taping an entire suit of hand warmers to Jeremy’s body and chuckled to myself. Moving on to the refrigerated produce section, I got the vegetables I needed and proceeded to leave – until I spotted something magical. It was nearly the equivalent joy of finding a porcini in the mountains – except this was a whole pound of fresh chanterelle mushrooms for $9. I grabbed one. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I was going to do something.

let’s make hand pies!

chanterelles, puff pastry, gruyère, egg, garlic, butter, salt, bacon, thyme, wine, cream, pepper

brush the mushrooms clean

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Recipe: vietnamese braised eggplant

This site went through a series of upgrades right before I hit the road, and apparently we shouldn’t have trusted the captcha update because it wouldn’t allow any comments to go through for a day. That is now fixed and I apologize for any annoyance it may have caused.

Earlier this week Jeremy, Kaweah, and I piled into the car and headed south to the San Juans to see what could be salvaged after the freeze. Driving our usual routes, I exchanged texts with a friend who was driving the other usual routes and we were both reporting the same: brown, dead, done. You shouldn’t be discouraged though! There are always those nice little close-up shots of single stands or trees to be had, but we were fishing for the bigger catches.

waiting for sunset, not hopeful (iphone)

the view from where i waited

last light on mount sneffels

I cut my losses and ended the trip early. Jeremy kept saying how sorry he was that the season was so bad and I kept telling him to quit being sorry. Sure it’s a bummer, but it isn’t the end of the world and I managed a few keepers despite the suckage. We (as in Colorado) had two excellent seasons in 2011 and 2012 – back to back awesomeness. Bad years will happen and do happen. I accept that. And if you’re in any sort of business that relies on Nature, you’d better expect it. Not to mention, it meant I could finally go for a hike without hauling all of my gear. So that’s what we did upon our return to Crested Butte.

the aspens are nothing to write home about, but what a stellar view

We’ve also been enjoying evening trail runs since I don’t have to hang around to wait for sunset over gold-draped mountains anymore. The days have been sunny, warm, and clear such that running in the shadow of the mountains late in the day is just the right temperature to start out. By the time we’re done, the world is fading from purple to blue and the chill begins to creep in. It’s the perfect time for a nice hot meal, and I’ve been loving on eggplant lately.

japanese eggplant

Given my druthers, I prefer Japanese eggplant to regular eggplant. It’s long, skinny, and has fewer seeds. I can’t reliably source Japanese eggplant unless I travel to the Asian markets out in Broomfield (Pacific Ocean Market) or Denver (HMart and other Asian grocers) or find them at the farmer’s market. The ones at the Asian markets are not always in the best shape, but I really wanted to try this recipe for Vietnamese braised eggplant with coconut milk and scallions by Charles Phan of The Slanted Door.

make the vietnamese stir-fry sauce: fish sauce, chicken broth, sugar

bring the broth to a boil, then add sugar

and some fish sauce

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